As an alternative of arresting girls who shun the hijab head masking, Iran is focusing on the cafes the place they collect
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Authorities in Iran have lengthy been preventing a battle with girls who refuse to put on the hijab or scarf, usually arresting and, in some circumstances, killing them for disobeying the non secular edict. Now the regime is making an attempt one thing new – focusing on companies that cope with girls who should not masking their heads. NPR’s worldwide affairs correspondent Jackie Northam has this report.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: In lots of different cities, it would not be uncommon to see a big group of younger adults having fun with some music at a restaurant, however that is Tehran. In a current video which flooded social media, reveals many of the girls within the crowd weren’t sporting the hijab or scarf in direct defiance of the Iranian regime.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
NORTHAM: To this point, this cafe has been fortunate and never been shut down by the Iranian authorities. However that is not the case in different elements of town, says Parsa (ph), who manages a well-liked cafe in Tehran. Parsa, like others we spoke to on this story, asks that we do not use his full identify out of worry of retribution by the Iranian regime. He says it is turning into extra widespread for morality police to raid cafes.
PARSA: (By means of interpreter) They’re asking us questions like, why aren’t girls in your cafe sporting hijab?
NORTHAM: Parsa says more and more, the morality police present up in unmarked vehicles. They swarm the cafe after which seal it.
PARSA: (By means of interpreter) They are saying in the event you do not come out, we’ll lock you in, and you may be imprisoned till the seal is damaged. One of the best you are able to do as an worker is perhaps to shortly flip the electrical energy off.
NORTHAM: In one other a part of Tehran, a restaurant proprietor named Amin (ph) says the regime not too long ago shut down his place. It was the second time this yr.
AMIN: (By means of interpreter) You arrange a enterprise, after which immediately they arrive and shut your cafe down simply because a couple of feminine clients got here to the cafe and not using a scarf or in informal garments.
NORTHAM: Amin, who additionally asks that we do not use his full identify for worry of repercussions from the regime, has owned his place for a decade. He says cafes have develop into a logo of free house for individuals in Iran, one thing the federal government would not like or need. However Amin says fines for getting shut down can price cafe house owners upwards of $3,000. Amin says that is a big monetary hit in Iran.
AMIN: (By means of interpreter) However actually, what bothers me greater than the cash is this sense you get – a sort of humiliation, a sort of suffocation. They impose this sense on me and plenty of others like me who’re in opposition to the obligatory hijab.
NORTHAM: Hadi Ghaemi, government director of the Middle for Human Rights in Iran, based mostly in New York, says for years, the authorities would harass and arrest girls who dared to exit on the street and not using a head masking. He says now they’re making an attempt a brand new tactic – going straight for the companies.
HADI GHAEMI: We have now documented a minimum of 50 institutions in – all through the nation who’ve been shuttered.
NORTHAM: Ghaemi says the Iranian regime’s existence hinges on strict Islamic legal guidelines, together with girls sporting the hijab. Ghaemi says the current disobedience is a part of a broader protest that is been happening for the reason that loss of life of Mahsa Amini, a younger Iranian girl who died in police custody about three years in the past for defying the scarf rule. Her loss of life sparked widespread protests which have became a grassroots motion.
GHAEMI: What we’re seeing in Iran, the place a lot of girls prepared to danger every part to struggle this repression, is a really widespread type of civil disobedience, and girls actually have crossed the edge. I do not suppose the regime can put the genie again within the bottle.
NORTHAM: Ghaemi says many Iranians really feel the warfare with Israel this previous summer season left the regime uncovered and weakened. Cafe proprietor Amin says that is emboldened individuals to proceed to go to cafes to take heed to music and shun the hijab.
AMIN: (By means of interpreter) Each many cafe house owners and nearly all the purchasers are not backing down, although there are studies of threats, closures and even arrests.
NORTHAM: However the Iranian regime nonetheless has huge energy and affect and is unlikely to offer that up, even when it is on its again foot in the meanwhile.
Jackie Northam, NPR Information.
(SOUNDBITE OF GOGO PENGUIN’S “SATURNINE”)
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